Early Mornings, Melting Eyeballs and Office Romanc
by sparklenvy
Summary: Martha came into work glowing, Owen is determined to find out who has had that effect on her and there is a corpse with melted eyeballs. Just a normal day in the hub. Martha?, Owen


**Title**: Early Mornings, Melting Eyeballs and Office Romance  
**Author**: Sara  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: talk of shagging, exploding bodies and nagging.  
**Pairings/Characters**: Martha/???, Owen  
**Spoilers**: Nothing major but it's best to have seen all of TW and DW.  
**Summary**: Martha came into work glowing, Owen is determined to find out who has had that effect on her and there is a corpse with melted eyeballs. Just a normal day in the hub.

It was on Martha's third week at Torchwood that she had entered the hub absolutely glowing. This fact was lost on Gwen and Toshiko, neither of whom had had their morning coffee yet and therefore had been incapable of noticing even the most obvious changes in the moods of their co-workers. Owen, however, saw it the second she skipped down the stairs to join him at the autopsy table.

"Please tell me there is a very interesting and important reason why you called me in three hours early?" Martha asked, standing across the table from him before pulling back the white tarp that covered the body. "Oh my God, did his eyes melt?"

"That appears to be the case. He was found under the dock like this around two in the morning," Owen answered, handing her the medical charts over the body and smirking. "But more importantly, you had sex last night."

"What?" Martha asked surprised, her eyes flying up to meet his.

"A great shag, as far as I can tell. Possibly amazing," Owen continued on. "So tell me, doctor to doctor, whose parts were you examining last night?"

"Are there any signs that he was exposed to extreme heat in that area?" Martha asked, turning her attention back to the man and ignoring his questions.

"Lets examine the facts: you didn't have a boyfriend when you moved to Cardiff, you spend very little time outside of either the hub or you loft and you're not the type of girl to take a bloke home from the pub. Even if you did, you wouldn't be glowing afterwards," Owen evaluated, crossing the room to turn on several of the machines. "And no, no extreme heat. Tosh did a sweep of the area over the last few hours and there haven't been any irregular temperature fluctuations or strange weather patterns."

"You talk like you actually know me," Martha finally responded, flipping to the last page of the report. "The brain is absolutely normal, no damage whatsoever. There was also no blood lose. How is that possible?"

"If it was possible then he wouldn't be here," Owen pointed out. "And I did you psych evaluation before you joined Torchwood. I know a lot more about you then you think."

"Jack ordered a psych evaluation on me?" Martha asked, her voice sounding slightly hurt.

"No," Owen smirked, pushing a few of the buttons on the closest machine. "Speaking of which, was it Jack? He does seem to favor you an awful lot and it's highly unusual for him to add a member to the team when one of us hasn't died."

"It wasn't Jack and is that machine suppose to be making that noise?" Martha inquired, eyeing the machine Owen was working on.

"I'm not even sure what this machine really does. I've just figure out that swirly lines are very, very bad and we don't want those. The bodies usually explode when that happens," Owen explained, retrieving the clipboard from her and start to record some of the results. "Was it that boy from the case last week? The one that fancied you. Or maybe a neighbor welcoming you to the neighborhood?"

"It wasn't anybody, Owen! I went home, had a cup of tea and went to bed like I have done every night since I moved here," Martha snapped before kneeling down next to the body to get a closer look. "You can actually see the trail where the eyes dripped down his face. He must have been upright when it happened for that to occur."

Before Owen had a chance to respond, Ianto appeared at the top of the stairs with two cups of coffee for them. He placed Owens's down on the counter next to him but handed Martha hers. Owen noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Ianto's fingers lingered over Martha's for a second two long.

"Thank you, Ianto," Martha said, before taking a sip. "Amazing as usual."

"You're welcome," he replied, a smiling tugging at the corner of his lips before he turned around and headed back into the main portion of the hub.

"Well that solves one mystery," Owen mused as Martha returned to the side of the body. "I should have known it was Ianto."

"It wasn't Ianto," Martha insisted. Her eyes, however, fell down to look at her coffee cup. Or at her hands holding the coffee cup, Owen wasn't quite sure which but either way it made its point.

"He gave you the nice cup, you're definitely his type and he was humming when he was tidying up this morning," he explained, pushing a few more buttons on the machine. "Ianto doesn't hum. Ever. I was actually a bit worried he'd been possessed."

"I strongly dislike you," Martha answered, causing Owen to laugh. It was at that moment the machine started to make a high pitch squeaky sound and several lights started to flash violently.

"Uh oh," Owen said, as he frantically pushed as many buttons as he could in an attempt to make the machine stop.

"Swirly lines?" Martha asked as she backed away from the body.

"Swirly lines," he replied before the two of them ducked underneath the autopsy table. Several seconds later they heard the sickening sound of a body exploding above their heads.

"Are you sure it's not the machine that makes them do that?" Martha asked, glaring at him through the underside of the table.

"Never thought of that," he responded, pushing the severed foot that had landed next to him away with the clipboard. Martha's glare increased as they heard the sounds of the other four running towards the room.

"Friendly warning, if Jack finds out that you and Ianto are shagging it is very probable that he'll ask to join in," Owen joked as he stood up, offering a hand to Martha.

"Who says he hasn't?" Martha responded as she stood up, trying to brush as much of John Doe off of her as possible.

"You're fitting right in, aren't you?" Owen laughed as Jack appeared at the top of the stairs.

"What the hell did you two do to the body?" he demanded, staring at the mess. Gwen and Tosh stood behind him, trying to hold back their laughter at the sight.

"Well, look at this way. At least we won't have to go to all the trouble of disposing of the body this time," Martha suggested as she pulled an ear out of her hair. "And please tell me that we have lots and lots of showers with an endless supply of soap and shampoo."

"I'll show you where they are," Ianto volunteered, appearing behind Gwen. "If that's okay with you, sir?"

"Fine, but I expect both of you to clean this up later," Jack replied before heading back towards his office.

"Don't do anything that I wouldn't do," Owen quietly said to her as she passed him, winking at her when she looked back at him.

"There's nothing you wouldn't do," Martha laughed before following Ianto into one of the twisting hallways that that outlined the hub.

An hour later, as Owen attempted to clean up the mess that was his lab, he hadn't been surprised to notice the tips of Ianto's hair were still damp when he and Martha finally returned to the main portion of the hub. 


End file.
